Florida man’s offering to God is setting 2 church fires. Cops call it something else
A Florida man burned two churches in Seminole in early February. Detectives from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office say Brody Allen Seiger told them he “set the fires for God.”
That won’t win Seiger any points down here. Pinellas deputies arrested Seiger, 33, on Tuesday after interviewing him. They charged Seiger with two counts of arson in the first degree on public buildings for the fires on Feb. 3 and 4 in the St. Petersburg suburb.
According to Pinellas detectives, police responded to fires at the Seminole United Methodist Church and the Universal Harmony Church in Seminole.
The churches were empty.
On Feb. 7, Pinellas deputies in the Arson and Auto Theft Unit posted surveillance video on its Facebook page that showed a man, dressed in blue, walking just before midnight on Feb. 3 on Seminole Boulevard in the vicinity of the churches. They said he was a suspect and asked for the public’s help to identify him. The man in the video turns to face the camera at one point. The video has been viewed more than 3,700 times.
“A pretty decent picture, too. Someone will recognize him,” someone posted in the thread.
Someone did. Cops received a tip that identified the suspect as Seiger.
On Tuesday, they interviewed the suspect who admitted setting the fires “for God,” detectives said. Deputies then described how the fires were set.
According to the police report, Seiger allegedly broke a window at the Universal Harmony Church during the late night hours of Feb. 3, by lighting a door mat on fire and pushing it through the broken window of the church.
About an hour later, on Feb. 4, police say Seiger broke a window at the Seminole United Methodist Church, poured gasoline through the window and ignited the fuel.
The fires caused minor damage, police say.
Seiger is being held at Pinellas County Jail on $50,000 bond on each charge.
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This story was originally published February 28, 2018 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Florida man’s offering to God is setting 2 church fires. Cops call it something else."